States Confront Public Employee Unions

States have record budget deficits and one of the contributing factors is the bloated pensions, health care, and salaries of public employees. Ohio, Wisconsin, and Kentucky have introduced legislation to limit the bargaining power of unions and to realign their wages and benefits with that of the private sector.

Ohio’s Senate Republicans are proposing the following:

Proposals in the bill:


State workers


• Eliminates collective bargaining for state workers, including higher education employees.


• Requires the Department of Administrative Services to develop a merit-based system of pay.


Local workers


• Removes the requirement that deadlocked safety forces go to binding arbitration, instead extending the prior union contract for one year.


• Requires mediators to consider wages of employees who are not members of the union and does not allow them to consider future tax increases as part of an entity's ability to pay.


• Allows employers to hire permanent replacement workers during a strike.


• Removes health insurance from collective bargaining. Management will pick insurance policies, and employees must cover at least 20 percent of the cost.


• No longer requires that once a subject is included in a contract that it becomes a mandatory subject of future bargaining.


• Defines an "impasse" as a lack of agreement after 90 days. After that point, it requires each side to make public its last, best offer.


• Prohibits public employers from picking up extra employee pension contributions.


• Eliminates from state law automatic pay increases for experience and education.


• Eliminates from state law leave policies and automatic 15 sick days for teachers.


• Prohibits school districts from bargaining away certain management powers, such as the ability to deploy teachers to certain buildings.


• No longer makes longevity a deciding factor when management is deciding to make layoffs.


• Requires a public employer to publish on its website any changes in the union contract that impacts compensation of workers, including wages, length of service payments, and insurance coverage.


• Requires the employer and the State Employment Relations Board to publish the parties' offers on their websites before and after fact-finding is complete.


• Allows schools or local governments in fiscal emergency to terminate or modify a collective bargaining agreement

SEIU and other union thugs crowded the statehouse of Ohio demanding a no vote. Wisconsin’s Governor is forecasting something else more ominous. He has ordered the National Guard to be on standby.

Collective bargaining is becoming collective thuggery.

Source: http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2011/02/09/senate-republicans-negotiate-limiting-unions-power.html

http://www.businessinsider.com/kentuck-senate-votes-to-end-guaranteed-pensions-2011-2

http://www.businessinsider.com/national-guard-is-prepared-for-state-worker-unrest-in-wisconsin-after-gov-unveils-emergency-budget-plan-2011-2#ixzz1DwnMW8Ca